by Taylor Burns

Superintendent Brad Jermeland previously stated the number one priority of the Teacher Leadership and Compensation Grant is to improve student learning.
On Dec. 10, 2015, PCM staff were informed the district received the TLC grant for $328,000.
On Feb. 11, Jermeland announced the Instructional Coach positions for each building. Mrs. Kristen Souza received the position at the high school. The other positions, Model Teacher, Mentor Teacher and Technology Integrationist, were announced on April 19.
“I hope the teachers learn from one another through increased opportunities to collaborate with the each other.  The positions in the TLC grant will help provide and support more opportunities for collaboration,” Superintendent Brad Jermeland said.
Spanish Teacher Kellie Jacobson and English Teacher Sam Pohl received the new Model Teacher positions. Special Education Teacher Dana Dodson and P.E. Teacher Tara Williams will take the new positions of Mentor Teachers, and the Technology Integration Specialist position will go to Business Teacher Kristen Burghorn.
At the high school, the Model Teachers will continue teaching in the classroom full time. The purpose of the position is to best demonstrate a teacher’s role in the classroom. There will be two Model Teachers in the high school, each receiving their annual salary plus an extra $4,000.
“I think it’s going to be a little bit of pressure, but in a good way because it will encourage me to keep looking for more and more engaging ways of doing things in my classroom. Sometimes it’s easy to get really familiar with what you’re doing and you stay the same all the time, and knowing that someone’s going to come in and watch me makes me want to do a lot more research and things to vamp it up,” Pohl said.
The Mentor Teachers will also continue teaching full time in their classrooms. Dodson and Williams will be in charge of mentoring new teachers for the district. Again, they will be the two positions in the high school with an extra stipend of at least $4,000.
Originally there was supposed to be two Technology Integrationists, but there was limited interest and the board felt one per building would work well. Burghorn will support classroom teachers’ use of current technology to help student achievement, and she will receive an extra stipend of $4,000.
These positions will go into effect at the beginning of the 2016-17 school year.
“I would like the school to realize the benefit of increase collaboration time for teachers. I feel it is important that teachers have time to work with one another to strengthen instruction and ultimately have a positive impact on student learning,” Jermeland said.